Post by Schwerpunkt on Jun 21, 2007 21:33:05 GMT -5
Of late, I was pleased to see both "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima" drawing a lot of attention. I think, like most voracious students of ww2 I was slightly dissapointed with Clint's films, but they had their redeeming features and I was especially pleased to see interest building in the Pacific theater of operations.
For some time I had been searching for books and films about the Japanese perspective in the PTO and I came across a film called "Fires on the Plain." Filmed in 1959, it was directed by the renowned Kon Ichikawa, which caught my attention immediately, as I knew him to have been a colleague of the venerated Akira Kurisawa who directed "Seven Samurai" and "Throne of Blood." Both directors were and are well known for their skill and unique style. My interest peaked, I ordered the film.
The film is shot in simple black and white, and the style is immediately very similar to Kurisawa's. That is to say, very advanced cinematography for its time and masterful story telling. Certainly not at all like American films of the same period. The story centers around a Pvt. Tamura, whose company is part of the last remaining japanese troops still defending the Phillipines. Immediately you become aware of the desperation and hardships facing these men. They have little food left and are weary beyond almost beyond reckoning. They fill their time digging air raid shelters and slit trenches. Pvt. Tamura, you soon discover, has tuberculosis and has been sent to the makeshift battalion hospital numnerous times, only to be refused admitance on the grounds he is not seriously ill enough to warrant treatment. Too ill to work, Tamura is instructed by his officer to return to the hospital one final time, and if he is not admitted he is to use a grenade given to him to committ sepuku. Pvt. Tamura leaves his commrades and begins a long and strange journey through the countryside and jungles, that gradually spirals farther and farther into desperation and insanity as he wanders through the lines of dispersed, broken japanese troops. For a film as old as it is, the realism and depth of detail are truly outstanding. As part of getting into character, the japanese actors were fed a starvation diet and did not attend to any hygiene for weeks. As far as I can make out, uniforms and weaponry were spot on as well. The only minor innacuracy I saw was that some American troops, who are rarely seen in the film anyway, were wearing only helmet liners with no steel pots, which was funny because the rest of their uniforms were seemingly perfect. It was, after all, a fairly low budget film.
I won't give away too much but there are many striking moments in the film, one of the most noteworthy to me was when Pvt. Tamura encounters a long column of slowly retreating japanese soldiers on a jungle road. Its an almost surreal scene. Like a march of the living dead. My grandfather, who saw the film with me and served in the phillipines and new guinea, commented on the expressions and slow, almost death like movement of the men simply stating " damn, thats what starving people really look like." To say the least, I was highly impressed by this film. It tells a rare and truly compellling story. No wonder it never gathered much mainstream acclaim. I highly reccomend anyone interested in the Pacific theater see this film.
For some time I had been searching for books and films about the Japanese perspective in the PTO and I came across a film called "Fires on the Plain." Filmed in 1959, it was directed by the renowned Kon Ichikawa, which caught my attention immediately, as I knew him to have been a colleague of the venerated Akira Kurisawa who directed "Seven Samurai" and "Throne of Blood." Both directors were and are well known for their skill and unique style. My interest peaked, I ordered the film.
The film is shot in simple black and white, and the style is immediately very similar to Kurisawa's. That is to say, very advanced cinematography for its time and masterful story telling. Certainly not at all like American films of the same period. The story centers around a Pvt. Tamura, whose company is part of the last remaining japanese troops still defending the Phillipines. Immediately you become aware of the desperation and hardships facing these men. They have little food left and are weary beyond almost beyond reckoning. They fill their time digging air raid shelters and slit trenches. Pvt. Tamura, you soon discover, has tuberculosis and has been sent to the makeshift battalion hospital numnerous times, only to be refused admitance on the grounds he is not seriously ill enough to warrant treatment. Too ill to work, Tamura is instructed by his officer to return to the hospital one final time, and if he is not admitted he is to use a grenade given to him to committ sepuku. Pvt. Tamura leaves his commrades and begins a long and strange journey through the countryside and jungles, that gradually spirals farther and farther into desperation and insanity as he wanders through the lines of dispersed, broken japanese troops. For a film as old as it is, the realism and depth of detail are truly outstanding. As part of getting into character, the japanese actors were fed a starvation diet and did not attend to any hygiene for weeks. As far as I can make out, uniforms and weaponry were spot on as well. The only minor innacuracy I saw was that some American troops, who are rarely seen in the film anyway, were wearing only helmet liners with no steel pots, which was funny because the rest of their uniforms were seemingly perfect. It was, after all, a fairly low budget film.
I won't give away too much but there are many striking moments in the film, one of the most noteworthy to me was when Pvt. Tamura encounters a long column of slowly retreating japanese soldiers on a jungle road. Its an almost surreal scene. Like a march of the living dead. My grandfather, who saw the film with me and served in the phillipines and new guinea, commented on the expressions and slow, almost death like movement of the men simply stating " damn, thats what starving people really look like." To say the least, I was highly impressed by this film. It tells a rare and truly compellling story. No wonder it never gathered much mainstream acclaim. I highly reccomend anyone interested in the Pacific theater see this film.